Natalia Veselnitskaya

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Natalia Veselnitskaya
Born Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya
Moscow, Russia
Alma mater Moscow State Legal Academy
Occupation Lawyer
Known for Advocacy against Magnitsky Act
Trump campaign-Russian meeting

Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya (Russian: Ната́лья Влади́мировна Весельни́цкая; IPA: [nɐˈtalʲjə vʲɪsʲɪlʲˈnʲit͡skəjə]) is a Russian lawyer who has been an outspoken advocate in the United States against the Magnitsky Act. Her prominent clients include Pyotr Katsyv, an official in the state-owned Russian Railways, and his son Denis Katsyv, whom she defended against a money laundering charge in New York.[1][2]

Her June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower has attracted attention related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[3][4][5][6]

Education and career

Veselnitskaya attests she graduated with distinction from the Moscow State Legal Academy in 1998.[7] She attests that she was then employed by the prosecutor's office in Moscow Oblast, where she worked on legislation.[7] She claims to have won over 300 legal cases.[8] She then moved into private practice, focusing on land deals in the expanding Moscow suburbs.[8]

Veselnitskaya has long been the lawyer for Pyotr Katsyv, who is the vice-president of the state-owned Russian Railways, and was formerly the Moscow region's minister of transportation.[8] In 2008, Vladimir Solovyov accused Veselnitskaya and her stepdaughter of orchestrating unusual court decisions regarding land in Moscow.[8] Veselnitskaya successfully sued Spravedlivost, an anti-corruption nonprofit, for defamation after it accused her, her former husband, and Katsyv of seizing land using government connections.[8] Her claims that land owned by IKEA was actually owned by an old collective farm were ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court of Russia.[8]

Veselnitskaya and her firm, Kamerton Consulting, represented FSB's, Russia's security service, interests from 2005 to 2013.[9]

Advocacy against the Magnitsky Act

In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had accused Moscow law enforcement of stealing $230 million tax in tax rebates from his client, was beaten to death in jail. In 2012, Magnitsky's client, Bill Browder, secured passage of the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on the officials involved.[8] Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by banning adoptions by Americans.[8]

In February 2015, the "Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation" was created in Delaware.[10][11] Rinat Akhmetshin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia who has worked as a Washington lobbyist since 1998, agreed to lobby for the foundation backed by Denis Katsyv.[12][13] From 1986 to 1988, Akmetshin had served in the Soviet Army, where he obtained the rank of sergeant and worked in a counterintelligence unit for the KGB.[12] Veselnitskaya's campaign included an unsuccessful attempt in Washington to repeal the Magnitsky Act and to "keep Mr. Magnitsky’s name off the Law.[3]

On June 9, 2016, Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner in Trump Tower, which they had scheduled after Emin Agalarov's publicist had told Donald Jr. that she was a "Russian government attorney" offering incriminating information on Hillary Clinton due to "its government’s support for Mr. Trump".[14] Donald Trump Jr. later claimed in July of 2017 that Veselnitskaya instead used the meeting to criticize the Magnitsky Act.[15]

Akhmetshin says he met with Veselnitskaya for lunch before the meeting where she then asked him to attend, which he did.[16] According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya's translator, Anatoli Samachornov, also attended.[12] He also says Veselnitskaya left a document with Trump Jr.[16]

Two days after the Trump Tower meeting, the foundation registered to lobby Congress on the Magnitsky Act.[12]

Later that June, Veselnitskaya screened a film by Andrei Nekrasov at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., that was critical of Magnitsky.[8] She was "deeply involved in the making of The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes.[17] She provided the film crew with "the real proofs and records of testimony" according to RussiaTV5, a "station whose owners are known to be close to Mr. Putin".[3]

Veselnitskaya represented Pyotr Katsyv's son, Denis, when Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged him with money laundering.[8] Federal prosecutors accused Katsyv of using Manhattan real estate deals to launder money stolen from Brower's Hermitage Capital Management in violation of the Magnitsky Act.[18][19] The Russian government then banned Bharara from traveling there.[18]

In October 2015, Veselnitskaya traveled to Manhattan with her clients for a deposition in the case.[20] After being told at the end of the deposition that the counter-party would be required to reimburse her expenses, she billed the U.S. government for $50,000, including an $800 meal, eight grappas, and a $995-a-night room at the Plaza Hotel.[21] Two months after President Donald Trump fired Bharara, the case settled, with Katsyv's company, Prevezon Holdings, paying $6 million without admitting any wrongdoing.[8][22] The settlement was for less than 3% of the amount prosecutors had initially sought.[18]

In March 2017, Senator Chuck Grassley filed a complaint alleging that the foundation, Akhmetshin, Prevezon Holdings, and Fusion GPS had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[23]

In a July 14, 2017 intervew with the Wall Street Journal, Veselnitskaya acknowledged that she was in regular contact with the Russian prosecutor general's office and with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika.[24][25]

Personal life

Veselnitskaya was previously married to Aleksandr Mitusov, a former deputy transportation minister of the Moscow area.[3][8]

See also

References

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  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ European TV Channel Puts Controversial Magnitsky Film On Hold
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  24. ↑ http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/342109-russian-lawyer-who-met-with-trump-jr-was-in-touch-with-top-russian
  25. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-lawyer-who-trump-jr-met-says-she-was-in-contact-with-top-russian-prosecutor-1500063809
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